


Longest Day

by Katergator



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Speculation written well before the trailers dropped for httyd3, because I wrote this before screenshots leaked online of the actual hiccstrid kids, but fits within httyd3 narrative somewhat, features an OC hiccstrid baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2019-12-31 22:39:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18323393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katergator/pseuds/Katergator
Summary: Some days, Hiccup felt like he had it all together. That he could do this. That following in the footsteps of the very large shoes he had to fill wouldn’t be as hard as he had anticipated.Today was not one of those days.





	Longest Day

**Author's Note:**

> Another prompt from tumblr I'm finally cross-posting over here: "If you’re willing to write, may I suggest this? Hiccstrid baby’s first laugh is just the thing Hiccup needed to hear after a long day of being chief."  
> I wrote this before I heard any real solid plotlines for httyd3, other than the speculation "all the dragons will leave." I'm actually kind of impressed that this fit in with httyd3 well enough, although I didn't call the abandonment of Berk, or birth order of hiccstrid kids. Ah well, I guess enjoy this for what it is? :)

Some days, Hiccup felt like he had it all together. That he could do this. That following in the footsteps of the very large shoes he had to fill wouldn’t be as hard as he had anticipated.

Today was not one of those days.

The winter wind, bitter cold and flecked with ice, stung his face every moment he spent outside. Chill seeped through his clothes, even his wool lined mitts and heavy coat.

Some of Sven’s sheep escaped through a weak point in their enclosure’s fence and broke into Odair’s shed, munching on the stored grain.  

Part of Greta’s roof caved in under the weight of all the snow. Men began repairing the damage while Greta and her little daughter went to stay with her sister.

The fish stores were low, lower than expected for this time of year. Hiccup, Fishlegs, and Snotlout discussed the possibility that someone in the village could be pilfering more than their share. A food shortage in the dead of winter was a vital emergency.

Especially this year. Because this year, the dragons were gone.

Even though dragons required a whole hoard of food, they were trained to fish for themselves and for the village. Once ice caps froze in the water and sailing became a deadly endeavor, dragons could fly out and bring home freshly caught fish.

Hiccup had done everything possible to ensure the village had enough food for the cold months, working hard through harvest and orchestrating trades with nearby tribes. All he could think, with a heavy heart, was how much easier things would be if the dragons were still here.

It had been an adjustment for the entire village, but for him especially.

Astrid sensed his depression and correctly assumed Toothless’s absence and Hiccup’s subsequent grounding was the cause, but he refused to discuss the depths his despair reached, or the real reason the disappearance bothered him so much.

Who was he without Toothless, without the dragons that had shaped his very soul? Was it normal to experience an identity crisis ten times a day? He wasn’t his father and he never would be. The only reason he bore the title of chief now was because of Toothless. The only reason Astrid gave him a chance was because of Toothless.

Everything he made, everything he built, his entire legacy, stemmed from the moment he shot some bolas at a shadow blocking out stars in the sky.

Without Toothless, he was nothing. Without Toothless, his esteemed titles were village pariah, walking disaster, and waste of space.

He feared the day his tribe would wake up and see him as they did ten years ago. What would happen if they lost their faith in him? The title of chief was all he had left. A Dragon Master was useless if there were no more dragons.

_Hiccup the Useless_.

He sniffed and dabbed his running nose on his glove as he helped Odair clean up the grain the sheep had spilled.

It seemed no matter how old he grew, how far he ran, the past loomed in the distance like a misty black fog, ever present to remind him rock bottom was so, so much deeper than he could fathom.

All day problems big and small crossed Hiccup’s path, ensuring he spent the entire day out in the freezing village and kept from the one place he wanted to be with all his heart. The one place left where he still felt like he belonged.

The sun dipped below the horizon and stars twinkled above the rising moon when he finally, finally trudged up to his home.

Smoke curled out of the chimney and warm lights glowed through the windows, beckoning his fatigued body and heartsick soul into its warmth.

The door creaked and cracked with cold as he pried it open. He brushed the ice from his shoulders and stamped the snow off his boot.

“Hey babe!” Astrid’s cheery voice soothed his chest like a balm. She hurried to greet him, holding a baby on her hip. She slipped a warm hand around the back of his neck and pecked him on the lips. “Your nose is freezing! Oh, and it’s kinda runny. Are you hungry? I have stew.”

She handed him a handkerchief and ladled steaming soup into a bowl for him one-handed. He smiled gratefully at her, words caught around the lump in his throat. He missed her working by his side, but a combination of freezing temperatures and newborn infant had kept her home bound lately.

No matter how lost he felt, how much his compass veered off course during the day, it always centered itself when he came home and fell into Astrid’s loving arms.

“So, how was it out there today?” she asked, in a light tone that indicated she saw right through his attempt to hide his weariness.

“Not great,” he sighed, blowing on the stew before taking a sip. “Felt like the longest day ever.”

She squeezed his shoulder. “I’m so sorry, babe.”

“Thanks.” He smiled at her and placed his hand on top of hers. “How’s Finley doing?”

“Great! We have something to show you.” She kissed the baby’s chubby cheeks. “Should we show Daddy what you did today? Yeah? I bet he’ll love it!”

She grabbed the little sewn doll of Toothless’s likeness she made for the baby, and Hiccup’s heart lurched at the sight of it.

Astrid sat down in the chair next to him and sat the baby up in her lap. She teased with the little Toothless doll, making him dance and fly through the air with sound effects, then dive and tickle Finley’s tummy.

A smile lit up his little face and he giggled, his tiny fingers grabbing for Toothless’s wings.

That tiny giggle instantly melted the frost in Hiccup’s heart. “He’s laughing!”

“Yeah! He laughed for the first time today, he just loves this little dragon.” She tickled Finley’s belly again and he responded with more adorable giggles, grabbing the toy and stuffing it in his mouth.

Hiccup’s grin settled into a sad smile. “Of course he does, he’s my son.”

Astrid looked up at him and the sheer amount of love and fondness in her expression cleared the smoky haze holding his head captive. His love for her deepened every day, her support his foundation, and sometimes the only reason he made it through the day was so he could come home to see her face.

“At least, I think he’s my son. There’s always a chance Snotlout-”

“Oh,  _Gods_ babe!” Astrid groaned with a laugh. “You’d know if he was Snotlout’s. Finley hasn’t flexed once or inappropriately hit on anyone, and that carrot top hair is unmistakable. Plus I’m pretty sure his eyes are gonna be green once they change. I’m sorry, but you’re stuck with us.”

Hiccup laughed too and leaned in for a short kiss that ended up lingering.

“Not to mention, I’d sooner become celibate than let Snot throw it in there,  _ever_ , so you don’t have to worry,” she mumbled against his lips.  

Hiccup deepened the kiss, starved for her affection, and little fingers grabbed one of his buckles.

He pulled away and plucked up Finley. “Hey little bud! You had a big day today, huh?”

Finley flashed him a gummy smile and grabbed Hiccup’s nose. Hiccup nuzzled the baby’s nose and kissed his cheeks. His son’s cherubic face was the perfect cure for melancholy.

This kind of unconditional love was unfathomable. He thought he knew what unconditional love meant, but until he held Finley for the first time four months ago, he realized he hadn’t a clue. He would move whole mountains for this tiny little being.

Prior to Finley’s arrival, he always felt the village elders were exaggerating when they spoke about parental love. Gods knows his relationship with his own father had been strained. When the midwife announced  _it’s a boy!_  he panicked.

How would he relate to a son? What if he was bad at being a father and his relationship with his own son was destined to the same strain and awkwardness he had known all his life?

In the wake of his father’s death, he struggled to understand why his father gave up his life for him, especially when he was not the son his father always wanted. The heartache and survivor’s guilt weighed heavily on him.

Sometimes, on his darker days, he wondered if everyone would have been better off if he had taken Toothless’s hit instead of his father.

But then Finley was born. And Hiccup understood with crystal clarity.

He would give up his life in an instant, in a split second without even thinking about it, for the bundle in his arms. He finally understood why his father made the ultimate sacrifice.

His father had always loved him, no matter how rocky their relationship had been. His disappointment over Hiccup’s shortcomings was superficial, and his anger when Hiccup disobeyed during dragon raids was the result of misdirected terror at losing his only son.

Hiccup’s heart no longer resided in his chest. It existed outside his body now in the form of a chubby little human, and the potential loss of that human would completely and utterly break him.

“I hope you like being smothered with love and attention, because your Mommy and Daddy love you more than anything in this whole world, bud.”

Astrid ginned fondly and patted Hiccup’s thigh. “I hope he likes sleeping sometime soon, because Mommy is exhausted.”

“It’s late, I suppose it’s bedtime, huh?”

“For Finley, yes. For you and me, not quite yet,” she said, raising a suggestive eyebrow.

A smirk spread on Hiccup’s face. “Oh?”

Astrid winked and took Finley from him. After a diaper change, she settled into the rocking chair Hiccup made for her. She wrapped warm blankets around Finley to nurse him to sleep next to the crackling fire.

As he watched his beautiful wife gaze at their beautiful son, tracing a tender finger on his cute button nose while he fed, hope and joy pierced through the veil of sadness persistently clinging to him. The image of his perfect little family righted something inside him that had felt tipped off balance for months.

Every adult learns that leaving childhood behind is bittersweet and the loss of things that had once been so important is painful.

But maybe, sometimes, the people (or dragons) that shaped and formed a person into who they are today were present in life for exactly the right time, when they were needed most.

Maybe, sometimes, destinies don’t always point in the same direction.

Finley’s eyes drooped closed and he fell asleep with a full belly. Astrid gently unlatched him from her breast and settled him into his cradle, careful not to wake him.

She grinned at Hiccup and nodded toward the stairs.

He followed, playfully pinching her bottom as she scooted up the steps.

Sometimes the story isn’t about one moment in time- it’s about growing up, the growing pains that come along with it, and the things inevitably left behind. 

He hoped Toothless was happy and maybe had a few hatchlings of his own by now.

Here in the home he created with his best human friend and the family they started together, he finally knew who he was meant to be…

On his own terms.


End file.
